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The car buyers' market, with titles such as Dennis Publishing's Auto Express, and the car modification sector, with Emap's Max Power, have both had a tough six months.

Top Gear topped the table with its year-on-year increase of 5.9% and Adam Waddell, publisher of the magazine, said covermounts were one of the reasons his title had managed to buck the trend.

"We've had a run of iconic covers and have upped the ante in terms of promotions," said Waddell. "Our added-value products have been really strong." He also cited DVDs and calendars as two examples of how sales had been boosted.

Although using covermounts is widely recognised as an expensive method of publishing, Waddell insisted: "It's not if you get it right and it delivers numbers".

In the car enthusiasts' sub-sector, Dennis Publishing's Evo recorded its highest ever ABC, albeit with a marginal increase of 1% period on period.

Meanwhile, Emap's Car showed an 8.9% decrease year on year. Mark Frost, publishing director of Emap Automotive, said the decision to stop gifting with the magazine had played its part in this drop, but now the plan was to stabilise circulation with editorial for luxury car enthusiasts. Frost added there was "not a big desire to do a Top Gear" and return to covermounting.

In the car modification market, Emap's Steve Prentice, publishing director of Max Power, admitted the titles in that sector, including Future's Fast Car and Redline, will have to adjust to changing fashions.

"To be honest it's been pretty tough for 18 months - it's quite a difficult market," he said. "Young guys are not modifying their cars as much as they used to. The market has been slow to recognise this."

Prentice said that in recognition of changing fashions, the title will be taking a different editorial approach from the July issue onwards.

"We used to do 100% modified cars but we are going to broaden our content to a wider range of cars," he added.

In the car buying market Haymarket's What Car? and Autocar, and Dennis' Auto Express all recorded decreases.

Dennis title Test Drive, although not in the top 10, reported a 52.9% decrease in sales. Phil Parker, group publishing director of the motoring division at Dennis Publishing, blamed the large decrease on dropping bulks and samples.